Manila (AFP) Oct 13, 2023 A magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit the Philippines on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, shaking buildings in the capital, but there were no reports of casualties or damage. The shallow quake struck about 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Manila at 8:24 am (0024 GMT) and sent students and office workers fleeing from their buildings. “So far everything’s okay. No … Continue reading Magnitude 5.2 earthquake shakes Philippine capital: USGS

Paris (AFP) Oct 12, 2023 French soldiers ordered out of Niger by its post-coup military rulers must now haul vast quantities of gear for hundreds of kilometres through dangerous desert known to harbour jihadist groups, with much of the hardware then set to return by sea. France this week started the pullout from Niger following the overthrow in July of pro-Paris president Mohamed Bazoum which … Continue reading France’s Niger withdrawal: painstaking overland operation

Paris (AFP) Oct 10, 2023 Climate change threatens the cultivation in Europe of aromatic hops which gives beer its bitterness, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications. European varieties of hops are prized and used by brewers around the world, but rising temperatures and less rain are reducing yields and the concentration of the compounds that provide beer its refreshing tartness. The resehttp://dlvr.it/SxHMrP Continue reading Beer faces unbitter future due to climate change: study

Brasilia (AFP) Oct 10, 2023 A wave of unusually extreme heat at the end of South America’s winter was made 100 times more likely by climate change, according to a study published Tuesday. “While many people have pointed to El Nino to explain the South America heat wave, this analysis has shown that climate change is the primary driver of the heat,” said Lincoln Muniz … Continue reading Climate change main culprit for S.America’s winter heat wave: study

Braslovce, Slovenia (AFP) Oct 10, 2023 After calamitous floods hit two thirds of Slovenia in August, one mayor took a radical decision – to raze most of the houses in one village rather than rebuild them. “My role is to ensure people have a safe life,” Tomaz Zohar told AFP, and living in Letus “is definitely not safe”. Knowing worse was to come with climate … Continue reading Mayor seeks to raze flood-hit Slovenia village as climate change bites

Herat, Afghanistan (AFP) Oct 11, 2023 A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Wednesday, claiming at least one life and causing panic among residents already traumatised by a series of tremors that killed around 2,000 people at the weekend. The dawn quake hit around 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of the provincial capital of Herat, where thousands were spending a fourth night in the … Continue reading One dead as new quake shakes west Afghanistan

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (AFP) Oct 11, 2023 Hurricane Lidia slammed into Mexico’s Pacific coast as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm Tuesday, causing flooding, blocked roads, fallen trees and at least one death, officials said. Ahead of its arrival, the government deployed around 6,000 members of the armed forces to help residents, according to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “You must take refuge in safe … Continue reading Hurricane Lidia leaves at least one dead in Mexico

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Oct 04, 2023 For reasons of food security and economic incentive, farmers continuously seek to maximize their marketable crop yields. As plants grow inconsistently, at the time of harvesting, there will inevitably be variations in quality and size of individual crops. Finding the optimal time to harvest is therefore a priority for farmers. A new approach making heavy use of drones and … Continue reading AI drones to help farmers optimize vegetable yields

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 04, 2023 Using a new analysis method for satellite images, an international research team, coordinated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and INRAE, mapped for the first time annual changes in global forest biomass between 2010 and 2019. Researchers discovered that boreal and temperate forests have become the main global carbon sinks. Tropical forests, which arehttp://dlvr.it/SxD9l8 Continue reading Boreal and temperate forests now main global carbon sinks

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 04, 2023 The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors of a peer-reviewed opinion paper publishing October 3 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution argue that these carbon-offset plantations might come with costs for biodiversity and other ecosystem functions. Instead, the authors say … Continue reading Carbon-capture tree plantations threaten tropical biodiversity for little gain